Inverness bartender Grant Murray will represent the UK at London Cocktail Week next month in the world semi-finals of the Cherry Heering cocktail competition.

Murray will go head to head with 46 other bartenders from around the globe as a judging panel of experts, including Simon Difford of Difford’s Guide, whittle the field down to a final ten.
Murray said reaching the semi-final was not only a victory for himself, but an endorsement of the Inverness bar scene as a whole.
“For someone from Inverness [to be in the semi-final] is great for the city and for Scotland,” he said.

Melbourne bartender Pita Dixon, from Joe Taylor, has made it to the top 10 in the Cherry Heering Classic Challenge. As part of the final 10, he will be flown to London Cocktail Week to compete for the grand prize in October.

James France, of Vanguard Luxury Spirits, which brings Cherry Heering into Australia, was delighted that an Australian had made it to the top 10.

“In all, bartenders from 46 countries were shortlisted for this prize, so it’s fantastic news that Australia has someone going to London to compete for the big one,” he says.

The 2016 Peter F. Heering Classic Challenge top 10 semi-finalists will compete live in London, shaking up their Cherry Heering modern classic cocktail for an international juding panel that includes Simon Difford and David Wondrich. The semi-finalists will then choose five finalists to present again on 6 October at Joyeux Bordel, London, where the winner will be decided.

Melbourne bartender Pita Dixon, from Joe Taylor, has made it to the top 10 in the Peter F. Heering Classic Challenge. As part of the final 10, he will be flown to London Cocktail Week to compete for the grand prize in October.

James France, of Vanguard Luxury Spirits, which brings Cherry Heering into Australia, was delighted that an Australian had made it to the top 10.

“In all, bartenders from 46 countries were shortlisted for this prize, so it’s fantastic news that Australia has someone going to London to compete for the big one,” he says.

The 2016 Peter F. Heering Classic Challenge top 10 semi-finalists will compete live in London, shaking up their Cherry Heering modern classic cocktail for an international juding panel that includes Simon Difford and David Wondrich.

The semi-finalists will then be cut to five finalists, who will present again on 6 October at Joyeux Bordel, London, where the winner will be decided.

Melbourne bartender Pita Dixon, from Joe Taylor, has made it to the top 10 in the Peter F. Heering Classic Challenge. As part of the final 10, he will be flown to London Cocktail Week to compete for the grand prize in October.

James France, of Vanguard Luxury Spirits, which brings Cherry Heering into Australia, was delighted that an Australian had made it to the top 10.

“In all, bartenders from 46 countries were shortlisted for this prize, so it’s fantastic news that Australia has someone going to London to compete for the big one,” he says.

The 2016 Peter F. Heering Classic Challenge top 10 semi-finalists will compete live in London, shaking up their Cherry Heering modern classic cocktail for an international juding panel that includes Simon Difford and David Wondrich.

The semi-finalists will then be cut to five finalists, who will present again on 6 October at Joyeux Bordel, London, where the winner will be decided.

All through September and October I kept hearing about the Peter F. Heering Sling Awards which were taking place in Berlin. I wasn’t particularly interested because, well, it’s one of approximately 12 skadillion cocktail competitions that take place around the globe each year. And besides, I thought, I don’t even really know what a sling is.

Which got me wondering — what the heck is a sling, anyway? My knowledge included exactly three sling-related factoids:

1. The bittered sling was present at the birth of the modern cocktail in the early 1800s — in fact, the very first mention of the word “cocktail” in print, back in 1806, mentioned that it was “vulgarly known as bittered sling.” It was described as a spirit, sugar, water and bitters, which basically made it an Old Fashioned.

2. The Singapore Sling is a yummy cocktail first created at at the Raffles hotel bar in Singapore in the early 20th century. It includes lots of ingredients, at least one of which I never have on hand, so I don’t make it at home.

3. Modern slings include Cherry Heering.

Well, I was right about #1, at least. Nobody quite knows what the real, proper, original Singapore Sling recipe was. And in fact the early Singapore Slings may not have even included Cherry Heering, although today it’s a virtually essential ingredient.

At this point you may be asking, what the heck is Cherry Heering? Well, first off, it’s not a fruit-flavored fish. It’s actually a cherry brandy from Denmark that’s been around since 1818. It makes a delicious after-dinner liqueur, but more importantly it’s used in the Singapore Sling and the Scotch whisky-based Blood & Sand, two of the greatest cocktails you may have never made at home, possibly because you don’t have a bottle of Cherry Heering on hand.

The Blood & Sand’s recipe is more or less a constant, but the air of mystery surrounding the Singapore Sling’s “real” recipe gives bartenders, both pro and amateur, a lot of latitude when creating it. Which is why the Peter F. Heering Sling Award competition can exist. Which leads us back to the question, what is a sling? Simon Difford, one of the judges for the semifinal, said, “”The definition of what a Sling actually is was stretched to the breaking point by some competitors in their quest to stand out….” Other judges, like
David Rosengarten, the famed food/wine writer and one of the judges of the contest, admitted to not really knowing the textbook definition of a sling: “I wasn’t sure what had to be included in a sling, besides Cherry Heering, of course [this was the one hard-and-fast rule of the competition]. Gin? Juice? And then [fellow judge and cocktail historian] David Wondrich took us aside and told us, ‘Don’t think of the Singapore Sling as a drink, think of it as a category.’ And then it all made sense.” A HA!

Suitably emboldened, the panel of six judges (plus the invited audience, which also cast votes) tried the five drinks and quickly and unanimously settled on the winner. As Rosengarten put it, “It was pretty obvious to me which one stood out from the rest, and it turned out that the rest of the panel felt the same way.” The triumphant cocktail was the Sloe Sling, created by Denmark’s own Nick Kobbernagel Hovind, which switches out traditional gin and Benedictine for sloe gin (flavored with sloe berries) and aquavit — a nice Nordic touch. The recipe, for all you home bartenders out there:

Shake all ingredients hard for 8 seconds. Double strain into a very chilled Palais glass. Top with 3 cl. soda and stir. Garnish.

(In case you’re wondering, 3 cl. is about 1 ounce.)

Does that explain what a sling is? Not really? Perhaps the best idea is to fix up a sling of your own and stop worrying about it. Here’s a Singapore Sling recipe from Gary (gaz) Regan’s indispensable tome, The Joy Of Mixology. Don’t be afraid to muck about with it — switching out ratios, base spirits, citrus, you name it (I recently made one using Basil Hayden’s bourbon in place of gin). After all, the Singapore Sling isn’t just a cocktail, it’s a category. Get it now?

Judged by a tip-top panel headed up by Simon Difford and including Simon Webster from Barlife UK and Luca Cordiglieri from China Tang it proved a difficult day’s work whittling the 17 semi-finalists down to five.

“The definition of what a Sling actually is was stretched to the breaking point by some competitors in their quest to stand out while others stuck to a recognizable riff on a Singapore Sling with unexpected flavors such as tea, celery and rhubarb,” said Difford. “Sampling these very individual 17 drinks made for a most interesting day with Cherry Heering which rightfully shined through in the best entries”.

Taoufike, Nick, Sigrid, Aron and Jon will travel to Berlin for the Peter F. Heering final on 7th and 8th October during Berlin Bar Convent.

Judging has ended and the Top 5 Peter F. Heering Sling Award Sling cocktails have been announced in London, England. The jury was led by bar legend Simon Difford and a prestigious jury panel that will included top tier media, tastemakers and bar experts who determined who moved onto Berlin, Germany and the Top 5 Global finalists of the 2014 Peter F. Heering Sling Award, on Oct 7th-8th at Bar Convent Berlin.

The Sling finalist are truly elite – having been narrowed down to the Top 5 final countries from an original group of 44 participating Sling inspired countries and now from the 17 Global Semi-Finalist countries.
The Top 5 Global Finalists for the 2014 Peter F. Heering Sling Award are:
Country | Finalist | Sling Cocktail

The Peter F. Heering brand has elevated the Sling Award competition to one of the world’s greatest and largest cocktail competitions and more importantly lifted this extremely talented group of global bar-stars into rare air in the ever-growing global cocktail scene competitions.

“The semi-final of 2014 Peter F. Heering Sling Awards saw a wide array of ingredients with the base spirits used by competitors ranging from Japanese single malt to aquavit, with mezcal and a vast range of different gins. said Simon Difford, creator of the globally renowned Diffords Guide. “The definition of what a Sling actually is was stretched to the breaking point by some competitors in their quest to stand out while others stuck to a recognizable riff on a Singapore Sling with unexpected flavors such as tea, celery and rhubarb mixing and then sampling these very individual 17 drinks made for a most interesting day with Cherry Heering which rightfully shined through in the best entries”.

Peter F. Heering has always been fashionable – a history of 200 years as one of the first global brands (EVER) – purveyor to every royal court worthy of their name. Peter F. Heering, a fashion accessory since 1818 and a part of iconic cocktails such as the Singapore Sling and the Blood & Sand. Peter F Heering is today present in over 100 markets.

The world famous, iconic cocktail such as the Singapore Sling is one of Cherry Heering’s primary unique selling points – The Singapore Sling should be on the drink list in any decent bar.

PeterF. Heering has had the unique honor to be purveyor to every royal court worthy of their name while possessing the proper style, class and breeding to socialize across the courts of the world. HEERING® has always been fashionable. CHERRYHEERING® is a small but indispensable component of iconic cocktails such as The Singapore Sling,and that is exactly how HEERING® likes to be seen; as an accessory that adds lavishness, extravagance and civilization to the mix.

HEERING® continues to evolve and recognize that even the timeless classics need a refreshing remake now and then, thus HEERING® has challenged the best of the best behind the world’s bars to create their own interpretation of The Singapore Sling and also possibly writing their name in the history of cocktails.

CHERRY HEERING liqueur is sold in more than 100 countries all over the world and is the essential ingredient in the world famous Singapore Sling and Blood and Sand cocktails. For more information about Peter F. Heering, please visit http://www.heering.com.

TOP 5 PETER F. HEERING SLING AWARD GLOBAL FINALISTS REVEALED
THE 2014 PETER F. HEERING® SLING AWARD HEADS TO BERLIN GERMANY FOR GLOBAL FINALS
August – 2014 (Stockholm, Sweden) — Judging has ended and the Top 5 Peter F. Heering Sling Award Sling cocktails have been announced in London, England. The jury was led by bar legend Simon Difford and a prestigious jury panel that will included top tier media, tastemakers and bar experts who determined who moved onto Berlin, Germany and the Top 5 Global finalists of the 2014 Peter F. Heering Sling Award, on Oct 7th -8th at Bar Convent Berlin.
The Sling finalist are truly elite – having been narrowed down to the Top 5 final countries from an original group of 44 participating Sling inspired countries and now from the 17 Global Semi-Finalist countries.

The Peter F. Heering brand has elevated the Sling Award competition to one of the world’s greatest and largest cocktail competitions and more importantly lifted this extremely talented group of global bar-stars into rare air in the ever-growing global cocktail scene competitions.

“The semi-final of 2014 Peter F. Heering Sling Awards saw a wide array of ingredients with the base spirits used by competitors ranging from Japanese single malt to aquavit, with mezcal and a vast range of different gins. said Simon Difford, creator of the globally renowned Diffords Guide
“The definition of what a Sling actually is was stretched to the breaking point by some competitors in their quest to stand out while others stuck to a recognizable riff on a Singapore Sling with unexpected flavors such as tea, celery and rhubarb mixing and then sampling these very individual 17 drinks made for a most interesting day with Cherry Heering which rightfully shined through in the best entries”.

Peter F. Heering has always been fashionable – a history of 200 years as one of the first global brands (EVER) – purveyor to every royal court worthy of their name. Peter F. Heering, a fashion accessory since 1818 and a part of iconic cocktails such as the Singapore Sling and the Blood & Sand. Peter F Heering is today present in over 100 markets.
The world famous, iconic cocktail such as the Singapore Sling is one of Cherry Heering’s primary unique selling points – The Singapore Sling should be on the drink list in any decent bar.
Peter F. Heering has had the unique honor to be purveyor to every royal court worthy of their name while possessing the proper style, class and breeding to socialize across the courts of the world. HEERING® has always been fashionable. CHERRY HEERING® is a small but indispensable component of iconic cocktails such as The Singapore Sling, and that is exactly how HEERING® likes to be seen; as an accessory that adds lavishness, extravagance and civilization to the mix.

HEERING® continues to evolve and recognize that even the timeless classics need a refreshing remake now and then, thus HEERING® has challenged the best of the best behind the world’s bars to create their own interpretation of The Singapore Sling and also possibly writing their name in the history of cocktails.

CHERRY HEERING liqueur is sold in more than 100 countries all over the world and is the essential ingredient in the world famous Singapore Sling and Blood and Sand cocktails. For more information about Peter F. Heering, please visithttp://www.heering.comwww.facebook.com/heeringliqueur cherryheering Heering